Mike Koshmrl of the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports Bill Addeo swears he didn’t park an SUV with a dead wolf strapped to the roof on the Town Square just for the attention.

Addeo sat on a bench next to his Ford Excursion across the street from the Cowboy bar Thursday afternoon, eager to answer questions posed by folks passing by.

“It’s a neck shot,” Addeo said. “The bottom of the neck is blown apart and there’s blood everywhere, so I didn’t want to put him in the back.”

Addeo had brought the wolf to Jackson Hole so that Wyoming Game and Fish officials could collect a DNA sample. The 85-pound female was shot in the company of four other wolves, all of them said to be satiated from eating the antelope they had killed.

This is the first second year of trophy wolf-hunting in Wyoming since wolves were reintroduced in the 1980s into central Idaho and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming in an effort to build their packs to sustainable levels in parts of their old range.

Since the trophy season began Oct. 1, 11 wolves have been reported killed legally. Two more were killed by poachers before the season started but are counted against the season's limit of 26 wolves. Originally, the limit had been set at 52.

But the wolf Addeo tossed onto his roof was shot in the 80 percent of Wyoming that makes up its wolf predator zone where there is no season, no limit and no hunting license required. So Addeo could have shot all five wolves if the four survivors had not scattered after he killed their companion. Twenty-nine wolves have been killed in the predator zone in 2013.

In the town square of Jackson Hole, passersby stopped for a look at Addeo's "trophy" and whipped out their cameras:

Despite the interest, nobody gave Addeo flak for putting his wolf on display.

“There hasn’t been one person that’s said anything negative,” he said. “Everybody’s happy.”

Other wolf hunters may be more circumspect in their exhibitionism than Addeo, but the killing of the gray wolf will go on in spite of the fact that wolves are a blessing to the ecosystem. They generally take weak, diseased animals as prey, they tend to drive out coyotes who, because of their larger numbers, take far more domestic livestock than wolves, and they reduce the environmental damage from over-abundant numbers of elk, deer and antelope, that abundance being partly a consequence of the wolves being exterminated in the first place.

Such considerations get nothing but the pfffffft from wolf-haters today, however, anymore than they would have a century ago. And they've been fighting for the right to kill wolves ever since they were reintroduced after a bitter political fight.

In the 1930s, after decades of concerted effort, bounty hunters, ranchers and settlers achieved their objective of wiping out the gray wolf in the Lower 48 states.

Gray wolves were placed on the Endangered Species List in 1974. In the 1980s, a few wolves naturally recolonized northern Montana. More were reintroduced in Idaho and Yellowstone in 1994.

By 2002, wolf populations in much of the region met federal criteria for being delisted from the protections provided under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. But lawsuits kept that from happening. In 2008, Idaho and Montana came up with wolf management plans in return for delisting. But that sparked another lawsuit launched by the Center for Biological Diversity. This succeeded in requiring that delisting be done by region, not by state. However, Congress overrode that decision in 2011 with a law specifically delisting the gray wolf in Idaho and Montana in April 2011.

Wyoming, however, didn't come up with a management plan. The view of officials there, in public and private, was that wolf are vermin. That hard-nosed attitude made it impossible even for a right-wing Congress to delist as they had done in Idaho and Montana.

By December 2011, an estimated 328 wolves were roaming Wyoming in 48 packs, two-thirds of them outside Yellowstone.

The Wyoming delisting ultimately resulted from negotiations between Wyoming Republican Governor Matt Mead and then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. Initially, the whole state was going to be a free-fire zone. Eventually, that was cut to a mere 80 percent of the state where a wolf can be killed at any time, for any reason, without a license. The rest is subject to a short hunting season and a limit of 26 animals.

When the final USFWS rule on delisting was published last September, an array of more a dozen environmental organizations sued again:

“Wyoming’s wolf management policies open the door to unlimited wolf killing throughout most of the state and provide inadequate protection for wolves even where killing is regulated,” [according to a press release issued by one of the two coalitions that filed suit at the time.]

But the delisting proceeded for all the United States except an estimated 75 wolves of the Mexican sub-species in Wyoming and New Mexico.

“I think the plan is premature,” [declared] Norman Bishop, the former Yellowstone National Park biologist who led public outreach for wolf reintroduction.

Michael Hutchins, who retired last year as director of the Wildlife Society, calls for “better science” and objects to wolves being “delisted out of political expediency.”

“This decision could derail wolf recovery efforts in areas around the country where it has barely begun,” warns Defenders of Wildlife.

But then wolf recovery isn't exactly a priority in Wyoming.

••• •••

One group fighting the delisting is Defenders of Wildlife. You can help them out by clicking here.

••• •••

ADDENDUM: It should be noted that eight states have wolf-hunting seasons. Licenses range from $11.50 for residents in Idaho to $500 for non-residents in Michigan. The population figures are all minimum population estimates based on actual counts:

The estimates for Alaska are 7,700 to 11,200, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Wolves have never been under Endangered Species Act protection in Alaska.

Wyoming: 358 wolves (season in part of state and free-fire zone in the rest)

Michigan: 658 wolves

Wisconsin: 809 wolves

Minnesota: 2200 wolves

Montana: 625 wolves

Idaho: 750 wolves

Washington: 43 wolves

No hunting season:

Oregon: 46 wolves

Colorado: Unknown,could be zero

Utah: Unknown, rumored sightings, but population could be zero

A subspecies called the Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced into central Arizona and New Mexico in an area called the “Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area.” There are now 13 packs plus lone wolves totaling 66 animals in that area. They are still protected under the ESA.

One of the my most important outdoor experiences was spending a week backpacking on Isle Royale National Park, in Lake Superior, as a teenager. Early one morning, as I sat on the shores of a pond on the island I spotted a gray wolf on the other side of the pond. I swear it looked me in the eye, as we shared in the beauty of the beginning of the day. That wildlife encounter stuck with me, and years later, I knocked on doors to gain support for reintroducing wolves to suitable areas in Colorado.

In the mid-1990s, I was the head of a statewide Wyoming conservation organization when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. In Yellowstone, wolves quickly reestablished a natural order to the park, culling out weak deer and elk, and out-competing coyotes. Areas that were once overgrazed by elk and deer recovered and birds, beaver, and other wildlife are bouncing back. The return of the wolf has pumped new tourism dollars into local communities around Yellowstone as people from all over the world come to see and hear wolves in the wild.

Unfortunately, the hatred for wolves from a small, yet politically powerful group of western state leaders in Wyoming prompted efforts to establish a state funded wolf bounty, and eventually categorized wolves as essentially “vermin.” Such state “predator” status means wolves are regarded as pests outside of Yellowstone. No longer protected as an endangered species outside of park boundaries, hundreds have been trapped and shot, ensuring that they will not recover as a viable species in most of the West.

Last June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed no longer protecting gray wolves as an endangered species in the vast majority of the country, threatening any chance of wolves returning to much of their former range. Putting the fate of wolves back into the hands of the western state politicians will not keep them on the road to recovery, but send them down a path to destruction.

This is also a critical time for Mexican wolves, the smallest, rarest, southernmost-occurring wolf. Although the Mexican wolf would keep its “endangered” status, the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed changes that could severely limit recovery efforts for this wolf, one of the most endangered animals in North America. Today, there are only about 75 Mexican wolves living in the wild. Education efforts and increased law enforcement throughout the Mexican wolf recovery area are needed to prevent more such killings.

If you live our west, you can tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in person that wolves must be protection. The agency has rescheduled public hearings to take place on November 19 in Denver, Colorado, November 20 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, November 22 in Sacramento, California and December 3 in Pinetop, Arizona. Each public hearing will include a short briefing by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and provide the public a chance to give comments as well.

And if you can’t be there in person, join us in calling for more wolf protections with this online action. Add your voice to the more than 700,000 other Americans who’ve urged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to hold true to their duty to uphold the spirit of the Endangered Species Act and continue to recover wolf populations to the wild.

A few years ago, in Yellowstone, my wife, 8-year old son and 13-year-old daughter watched a pack of wolves close in on a herd of elk in Yellowstone. We shared a spotting scope with a woman from Wisconsin, a family from Spain, and a long-time Wyoming resident. Seeing that pack of wolves stalking a herd of elk, and watching the elk clump together to defend themselves against the pack showed that the laws of nature have been restored to Yellowstone.

We must allow the recovery of wolves to continue under the Endangered Species Act; the job is far from done. Bringing back wolves restores predator-prey interactions that preceded humans and shaped the wild special places that we all love today.

Half of the state’s ( Wyoming ) wolf hunt areas have reached quotas since the start of October

by Joshua Scheer on October 28, 2013

Half of the state’s wolf hunt areas have reached quotas since the start of October

by Joshua Scheer on October 28, 2013

Gray Wolf (Photo by Tracy Brooks-Mission Wolf-USFWS)

(Cheyenne, Wyo.) – Six of the 12 wolf hunt areas are now closed for the remainder of 2013. Wolf hunt area four reached its harvestable quota of two wolves this past Sunday. Other wolf hunt areas already closed for the season include areas two, three, five, seven and 10.

The wolf hunting season began October 1 and ends December 31, 2013, except for hunt area 12 south of Jackson, which opened October 15 and closes December 31.

As with other trophy game species, wolves in these areas are managed under a mortality quota system. The hunting season in each specific wolf area will remain open until the quota for the area is reached, or until December 31, whichever comes first. All hunters must call the wolf hotline daily (800-264-1280) to ensure the quota for wolves in each specific area has not been reached.

Hunters harvesting wolves in areas where wolves are classified as trophy game area required to report the kill within 24 hours by calling the hotline at 800-264-1280. Within five days, they are required to present the skull and pelt to a game warden, biologist, or other personnel at a WGFD regional office for registration.

In all other areas of the state where wolves are designated as predatory animals, no license is required to harvest a wolf, and there are no closed seasons or bag limits. Anyone who takes a wolf in areas of the state where wolves are designated as predatory animals is required to report the kill to a district game warden, biologist or WGFD personnel at a regional office within 10 days after the date the wolf was killed. Presenting the skull and pelt is not required, but doing so does aid in department efforts to monitor wolf populations and genetic interchange through the state.

Hunters with questions about hunting seasons or regulations can pick up a copy of the current hunting regulations for the species in which they are interested at any license selling vendor, regional WGFD office or call the WGFD sportsman line at 307-777-4600.

THE ANNIHILATION OF

WYOMING'S WOLVES

Reposted from GOOD WOLF

October 23.2013

In April of 2012, a meeting was held between Wyoming Governor Matt Mead, Senator John Barrasso, Secretary Ken Salazar, and some representatives of the U.S. Wildlife Services. After a little pressure and a lot of conniving, a deal was brokered to de-list the gray wolves of Wyoming from federal protection, and propose a hunt for October of 2012. Immediately, following this meeting, it was announced that Daniel Ashe would be appointed Director of U.S. Wildlife Services. Mysteriously, prior to this meeting, Salazar was unable to promise Ashe the position of director, albeit previous tries. Back room deals seem to be common place when it comes to the fate of wolves; one just has to look back to April of 2011 when the deal was brokered to de-list wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain states, to hold Jon Tester’s seat in the senate. Seems wolves have become scapegoats for politicians.

Why didn’t Wyoming get permission to de-list their wolves and participate in the wolf massacre of 2011? Likely, because Wyoming has such an extreme doomsday plan for wolves, that it can only be described as Draconian! Wyoming wolves are classified, with a ranching term, as having “predator status”. This means they have no rights at all. An animal with predator status, in 88% of Wyoming, can be shot on sight, or destroyed in any manner, by anyone, at any time, no license required!

Wyoming demonstrated its blood thirst for wolves in 2008, when on the very day that President Bush de-listed the gray wolf, a Wyoming hunter shot and killed a world-famous wolf, “Limpy“, who was celebrated by millions of tourists and wildlife advocates. After living the life of a true wolf, roaming free and wild, surviving being trapped twice (causing injury and thus his name), and accepted by the famous Druid Pack, this wolf was lost to the world as the Wyoming ranching mentality believes that predators have no place on this Earth. Outraged scientists and environmentalists clamored, and wolves were once again relisted under federal protection in 2009.

Wyoming’s new plans to create a trophy killing zone for wolves combined with their already existing predator status spells extinction for wolves. Just try to comprehend that in Wyoming one can maim or kill a wolf by any means, every day, all day. One can blow up a wolf, run him over with a snowmobile (which has been done), shoot, stab, arrow, poison, or hit him over the head with a frying pan. One can actually have a roadrunner rolodex of how to kill a wolf (and for that matter a coyote, also classified as a predator). Wow.

With wildlife outfitters and ranchers ruling Wyoming, the only valuable animal is the one they can make a profit from, and now dead wolves have become profitable. Wolf pelts, trophy teeth, feet, claws, skulls, e-Bay is lighting up with deals. But for the lazier wolf killer, you can just shoot the wolf and let him die where he falls, you can report a kill, if you like but there is no stringent rule about that.

The backbone of Wyoming’s disdain for wolves has always been based on livestock loss, however a 2010 study concluded that out of 41,000 livestock losses in Wyoming, only 33 sheep and 26 cows could be attributed to wolf depredation. This study typifies the less than 1% of cattle loss caused by wolves; noted and accepted by the scientific community recording the statistics. The remaining 40,941 animals in the 2010 study died from infection, respiratory disease, depredation from other animals, and frank neglect on the part of the ranchers; extreme weather, and the birthing of calves. Nonetheless ranchers keep pressing for wolf destruction, falsely blaming the wolves as a major cause of livestock loss. Could one reason be that ranchers don’t get supplemented by the government for livestock loss unless a ‘wolf did it’? Just as it isn’t so that wolves are decimating the elk population, when in truth there are more elk than ever before in the Rocky Mountain States, an estimated 400,000 elk! That is more elk than before the wolf re-introduction. But what is so, is the insatiable desire by trophy hunters and trappers to thrill kill the great gray wolf of the Northern Rockies.

Do they do it for the money, or out of unfounded fear, the beliefs of a subculture, the twisted thrill of having the power of life and death over a majestic animal, whatever their reasons, common sense tells us that the wolves cannot survive their extreme “management’ plan.

History will look upon this massacre of wolves as sickeningly cavalier and ignorant, like the great western bison massacres of the 1800s, and Wyoming will forever carry the black eye of annihilating its own iconic wolves.

**the wolf featured used to run freely in Wyoming...until a wildlife eco terrorist decided the wolf should run no more.....

JACKSON, Wyoming — Wolf-watchers say they're concerned that hunters participating in Wyoming's second annual wolf hunt may have killed five members of the Lamar Canyon Pack, a well-known wolf pack whose territory includes part of Yellowstone National Park.

Officials with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department say it's impossible to determine if the two male and three female wolves were members of the Lamar Canyon Pack. The five were killed in a hunt area northeast of Cody over three days in mid-October.

Recent counts put the number of wolves in the pack at 11, meaning almost half the pack might have been killed.

State law prohibits Game and Fish employees from disclosing details about wolves killed in Wyoming's annual wolf hunt. That includes the specific locations where wolves are killed and the wolves' age, coloration and breeding status, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports (http://bit.ly/1b7WgQD ).

Regardless, Game and Fish officials can't determine the identity of the wolves killed for certain because the wolves weren't among those in the region that are wearing radio collars, department spokesman Alan Dubberley said.

"There's no way to know. We just don't have that information," Dubberley said.

Wolves of the Rockies President Marc Cooke said he sought the identity of the wolves killed from Game and Fish officials but didn't get any answers.

"They might as well face the reality that there's a good possibility that wolves killed were from Yellowstone," Cooke said.

The hunt area had a limit of four wolves. The five killed exceeded that by one. Last year, hunters were allowed to kill up to eight wolves in the hunt area.

This year's statewide wolf hunt limit is 26, down from 52 last year. The wolf hunting season began Oct. 1 and ends Dec. 31 with the exception of a hunt area south of Jackson where hunting began Oct. 15 and ends Dec. 31.

At least four wolves have been killed in Wyoming since the state kicked off its second formal hunting season this week in a trophy zone bordering Yellowstone National Park. Wyoming has cut in half the quota of wolves available for hunters in the trophy zone this year compared to last, from 52 down to 26. Alan Dubberley, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Wednesday that hunters have reported killing four wolves in the hunting zone since Tuesday. The state classifies wolves outside the trophy area as predators that may be shot on sight. No hunting is allowed within Yellowstone. Dubberley said hunting will remain open through the end of the year or until hunters reach the quota.

He said many hunters going after elk or other game pick up a wolf tag in case they come across one in the field. The federal government last year ended federal protection for wolves in Wyoming. But conservation groups have filed lawsuits in Wyoming and Washington, D.C., to challenge the action. Wyoming had about 192 wolves in the trophy hunting zone going into last year’s hunt, Dubberley said. Hunters killed 42 wolves in Wyoming last year, the state’s first wolf hunting season since the federal government reintroduced wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem in the 1990s. The game department predicts the population in the trophy hunting zone will be at least 160, including 13 to 15 breeding pairs, at the end of this year’s hunting season.

Dubberley said. ”The quota for this year is 26, and the reason it’s lower is we’re not really attempting to reduce the population to the extent we were last year,” Dubberley said. “We’re wanting to have a slight reduction this year, but really just wanting to maintain that level. “In taking over wolf management from the federal government, Wyoming committed to maintaining at least 10 breeding pairs of wolves and at least 100 individual animals outside of Yellowstone and the Wind River Indian Reservation, in the central part of the state. The game department considers other factors, in addition to hunting, that kill wolves when it sets hunting quotas, Dubberley said. Even as the state allows wolf hunting, environmental groups continue to challenge the decision to end federal protection for Wyoming wolves. Tim Preso, a Montana lawyer, represents a coalition of environmental groups challenging the wolf delisting in the pending Washington, D.C., case. He said Wednesday the case is at a point where the judge could rule at any time whether it was proper for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over wolf management to Wyoming. ”We would like to get a ruling as soon as possible,” Preso said. The environmental groups argue that allowing wolf hunting in Wyoming raises concerns about the ability of the wolf population in Yellowstone to maintain connections with other wolf populations in the northern Rockies, Preso said. ”We’ve raised a number of issues concerning the adequacy of Wyoming’s legal safety net for wolves in the absence of Endangered Species Act protections,” Preso said. ”And we’d like to get those ruled on as soon as possible because we’re obviously heading into another hunting season, and we’re going to be heading into another season of peak wolf disbursal over the winter. “Cheyenne lawyer Harriet Hageman represents the Wyoming Wolf Coalition, which includes several Wyoming county governments and agricultural and sportsmen groups that have entered the litigation to support wolf hunting.”I think that Wyoming’s wolf management plan obviously is appropriate and necessary to protect our other industries as well as to protect the wolf population, so I think we’re on the right track with that,” Hageman said.

Another wolf was killed in Wyoming's predator zone which brings the total to 24 wolves killed in the state so far - a sober reminder that wolves are killed in 85% of this state year 'round - w/ no license, for no reason and in any way. This is in addition to the state's upcoming wolf hunting season which starts in October.

In September a Congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing in Casper, Wyoming as Congress tries, yet again, to "reform" this historically significant environmental law that protects our most critically endangered species and their habitat.

Wyoming news reporter Cat Urbigkit lives in the heart of wolf country, near Big Piney, Wyoming, a few hundred miles south of Yellowstone National Park. As a news reporter, rancher, researcher and Wyoming resident, she has followed the wolf issue for many years and written many articles on the topic, as well as an upcoming book on the history of wolves in Wyoming.

The goal of this website is to present up-to-date, accurate information about what is happening with wolves, focusing on wolves in the Rocky Mountains, but referring to wolf happenings outside our region when there is some local relevance. Rather than an agenda-driven advocacy site, this is the place to be for the facts about wolves, with a strong focus on what’s happening on the ground.

2 comments:

Please stop and end wolves hunting , wolves is wonderful animals , Their population is endangered list , give love and respect their life, protect and help save their ecosystem and habitat , don't let beautiful wolves disappear , ban this cruelty trapping and killing for the wolves alive . Thank you